E-Book

The most complete chess e-book (pdf,pgn) for the chess lover

Portable Game Notation (PGN) is a computer-processible format for recording chessgames (both the moves and related data); many chess programs recognize this extremely popular format due to its being stored in plain text.

This book contains a comprehensive collection of the shortest decisive games in chess history. It is an indispensable guide to the pitfalls and traps that lurk in every opening system. An ability to punish errors in the opening is an essential aspect of modern opening play. All too often players fail to seize their chances to win a crisp miniature game. The thousands of games featured in this book show how to detect the opponent's errors and take maximum advantage. The text includes an outstanding and comprehensive collection of games won in 13 moves or fewer, as well as explanations of the errors made and how to avoid them. This indispensable volume will help sharpen your killer instinct! FIDE Master Graham Burgess is a highly accomplished and versatile writer on chess, whose 'Mammoth Book of Chess' won the British Chess Federation Book of the Year Award in 1997. He holds the world record for marathon blitz chess-playing.

Nunn's Chess Openings is the chess-player's new bible. This single volume covers all chess openings in detail and will enable every chess-player, right up to grandmaster standard, to play the opening with confidence. As World Champion Garry Kasparov once said in an interview, 'A really good opening survey should be written by a team of experts.' Nunn's Chess Openings is indeed written by a team of experts: four players who are acclaimed as outstanding chess writers and experts in their fields. The team's collective knowledge and experience embrace all openings, so each section of Nunn's Chess Opeings provides the sort of insider knowledge that will give you the edge on your opponents. This ultimate survival guide to the chess openings is up-to-date and comprehensive, written by four experts under the leadership of John Nunn, contains crystal-clear tables for maximum ease of reference, and is computer-checked for accuracy. John Nunn has been a grandmaster for 20 years and has played for the English National Team from 1974 up to the present day. A the 1984 Chess Olympiad he won three individual gold medals and in 1988-9 finished sixth overall in the World Cup. In recent years he has turned more to writing, establishing a reputation as arguably the worlds' foremost chess author. He has twice won the British Chess Federation Book of the Year Award. Graham Burgess is a highly-regarded chess author. He holds the world record for marathon blitz chess-playing and won the British Chess Federation Book of the Year Award in 1997. John Emms is a leading English grandmaster who tied for first place in the super-strong 1997 British Championship. He is a professional trainer, writer and player. Joe Gallagher is a grandmaster who plays regularly for the Swiss National Team. He has written several highly-regarded opening books.

24.7.09

Combinations are the central element in chess; they make the game so magical and captivating. The beautiful point of sacrificing a queen, the strongest piece, in order to checkmate with a lowly pawn brings a smile of joy to all chess lovers. Virtually all chess games possess a combination, either one hidden in the shadows of analysis carefully avoided or one that provides a decisive blow.Winning Chess Combinations is a unique work that doesn't merely repeat the wonderfully rich and vast numbers of combinations, asking readers to solve a particular diagrammed position; it is a work that is far more realistic. A combination involves a sacrifice upsetting the balance of forces, but will it work or tragically boomerang? The reader is invited to solve this critical question by identifying the advantages that a specific position holds which might make the combination successful.Winning Chess Combinations is the seventh in Yasser Seirawan's highly acclaimed Winning Chess series - Probably the best-selling series of chess books ever published.

The famed Russian chessmaster analyzes chess games of the legendary American Bobby Fisher against some of his strongest opponents during the years Fisher was recognized as the world's top chess player. In furnishing much material besides just a simple record of moves and occasional comments, Kasparov also presents lengthy discussions of the ups and downs ups and downs of the competition during the tournaments and individual matches. The exceptional book on chess goes even beyond this to give a broad picture of the chess world of the time and the play of the noted chessmasters Samuel Reshevsky, Miguel Najdorf, and Bert Larsen. An invaluable book for serious chess players, while also of interest to ones attracted to the excitement and personalities of major chess tournaments; which in recent years have started to receive some media coverage.

The battle for the World Chess Championship has witnessed numerous titanic struggles which have engaged the interest not only of chess enthusiasts but of the public at large. The chessboard is the ultimate mental battleground and the world champions themselves are supreme intellectual gladiators.

This magnificent compilation of play from the early days of chess forms the basis of the first part of Garry Kasparov's definitive history of the World Chess Championship. Garry Kasparov, who is universally acclaimed as the greatest chessplayer ever, subjects the play of his early predecessors to a rigorous analysis.

This volume features the play of champions Wilhelm Steintz (1886-1894), Emanuel Lasker (1894-1921), Jose Capablanca (1921-1927) and Alexander Alekhine (1927-1935 and 1937-1946).

However, this book more than just a compilation of play of the early greats of chess. Kasparov's biographies of the early champions places them in a fascinating historical, political and cultural context. Kasparov explains how each champion brought his own distinctive style to the chessboard and enriched the theory of the game with new ideas.

The Sicilian defence is the most popular opening at club level and the great mass of theory is a daunting prospect for the tournament player having to face it. This book seeks to offer a complete repertoire against every variation of the defence, together with an alternative line for White where the recommended move leads to particularly sharp play. Thus, players of different styles should be able to face the Sicilian with confidence. By basing the material on 31 key selected games, the author develops an understanding of the attacking plans for White and the importance of different move orders. Grandmaster John Nunn is a member of the English Olympiad team. He is author of "The Benoni for the Tournament Player" and co-author of "Sicilian Defence: Najdorf Variation".

23.7.09

With 150 quizzes, diagrams, and analyzes geared to the advanced, beginning and intermediate player, Pandolfini offers a practical approach to mastering essential stratagems of the opening game. He then shows you how to exploit these techniques in your own play, again and again, as you reach a new level of chess mastery.

Nothing more clearly separates chess master from chess wannabe than winning endgame play. Accurate opening play can be satisfying, and combinations in the middlegame are exciting. But for most chess players, victory is the real finish line. And the endgame is the last lap of the race. Depending on whether or not you command the necessary endgame knowledge, you can spoil hours of planning, or you can enjoy the victory you've spent the whole game earning. You can even pull yourself out of the steely jaws of a "certain" defeat! The best news is that you don't need to memorize thousands of positions, but only a few carefully selected ones. Combine these with the clear and concise explanations in Just the Facts! and you have the "magic key to chess mastery." Just the Facts! boils down all essential endgame knowledge into one volume you can use to win games for the rest of your life. (Unlike opening variations, endgame knowledge is immutable.) The principles of the endgame are very different from those in the opening and middlegame some rules even reverse themselves! Just the Facts! gives you the ideas and the ability to recognize when to apply them. Just the Facts! is the seventh and final volume of the best-selling Comprehensive Chess Course, the series that brings English readers the once strictly guarded and time-tested Soviet training methods, the key to the 50-year Russian dominance of the chess world. The Comprehensive Chess Course can take you from beginner to master.

The Sicilian Defense is the most exciting of all chess openings and the most popular at all levels of play. The attacking and tactical possibilities of the Sicilian are numerous. There are many sacrificial ideas that occur time and again in the Sicilian, and it is the task of this book to clarify and analyze them.

David Neil Lawrence Levy (b. March 14, 1945, in London), is a Scottish International Master of chess, a businessman noted for his involvement with computer chess, and the founder of the Computer Olympiads and the Mind Sports Olympiads. He has written more than 40 books on chess and computers.

J. R. Capablanca "Chess fundamentals" (ENG,
1934)

"In chess the tactics may change but the strategic
fundamental principles are always the same".

J. R. Capablanca

Let us introduce to you this classic chess book by Jose Raul Capablanca, the
most clear player in the chess history. It'll be very useful especially for
young players and those who make the first steps in chess education.

This book by Reinfeld Fred and Reuben Fine covers the second World
chess championship title match between Alexander Alekhine and Efim
Bogoljubov. All the games are heavily annotated in an old, non-computer
style. Enjoy the chess classic!

Flesch "Planning in Chess" (ENG, 1983)

Forming a correct plan in the middle game is one of the most
important aspects of chess and a feature that distinguishes the master from the
amateur. The author uses complete games to illustrate which factors influence
the selection of a correct plan and how this plan is carried out.

In addition he examines the established chess "rules" and how and when they
can be broken.

Pandolfini "Pandolfini's Endgame Course" (ENG,
1988)

Existing books on chess endings were of two unsatisfactory types.
Either they were too analytic and technical or too vague and general. There was
a compelling need to combine the best features of both types into a single
instructional chess endgame book format.

So on my own I started to collect insightful endgame positions, explaining in
both words and chess variations the concepts I judged to be most helpful to my
students. My goal was to create an inventory of positions that would benefit any
chessplayer who studied them.

Korn "The Brilliant Touch in Chess" (ENG,
1966)

The popularity of books on combinations among chess
players has a deeper reason than mere love of the brilliant, the sensational,
the unexpected. No doubt this love is an integral part of their attraction, but
deeper down there is the realization that the combination is an essential part
of the game.

When both sides have played tenaciously and well, there comes a time when the
players are, as it were, on the verge of deadlock, with a draw as the inevitable
result.

Than the supreme effort, the combination, comes to the rescue, not
necessarily to win a piece or to bring about mate, but, possibly, merely to
effort a breach or to gain the essential tempo which will enable the player to
turn the scales in his favour.

Edward Lasker "Chess Strategy" (ENG, 1915)

There is no doubt that any chess player who will take the
trouble to study Chess Strategy will spend many a pleasurable hour.
Incidentally new vistas will be opened to him, and his playing strength
increased to a surprising degree.

The large majority of chess players who would like to improve their game,
have not the necessary opportunity of pitting themselves against players of
master-strength, or at least of obtaining the desired instruction from personal
intercourse with them. It is for such players that the present work is intended.

Winter "Kings of chess" (ENG, 1954)

In bringing before the chess playing public this account of the
matches contested for the highest crown of chess ability, the title of Champion
of the World, William Winter (British Open Chess Champion 1935, 1936)
actuated by the desire to give present-day players some idea of the colourful
personalities who strove for it, their general concepts of play and the
conditions under which they fought.

Troitzky "360 Brilliant and Instructive Endgames" (ENG,
1968)

In
chess, as in advertising, there are brand names. Few names are honored in chess
as that of Troizky, who for more than forty years maintained a magnificent
record of unbroken creative activity.

During that time he composed hundreds of these delightful chess endgame
studies which are unsurpassable for elegance and subtlety. Troizky is the great
artist of the endgame domain, immitable in his skillful manipulation of the
chess pieces.

The present collection contains the chess studies that Troizky considered his
best. It would be difficult to think of a more enjoyable experience than
savoring and enjoying these gems.

"Kasparov - Karpov. Seville 1987" (ENG,
1988)

This is the fourth match for the world title between these
two players. Their first (unlimited) competition (September 1984 -
February 1985) was interrupted by FIDE President Florencio Campomanes without
declaring a winner, when the score was +5 -3 =40 in favor of
Karpov. The second and third contests were won by
Kasparov, the scores being +5 -4 =16 and +5 -4 =15
respectively.

Before the Seville Match the players had met each other over the chess board
one hundred times exactly, the total score being +13 -12 =75 in favor of
Kasparov.

David Bronstein, an outstanding International Grandmaster, once a Challenger
himself, illuminates the underlying philosophy of each chess game of this
exciting contest.

Keres, Kotov "The Art of the Middle Game" (ENG,
1964)

Many chess-players know a large variety of openings and understand
well the pattern of the endgames - but what happens in the middle? The
difficulty of understanding the principles of middlegame play is perhaps best
illustrated by the dearth of good chess books on the middle game. They can be
counted on the fingers of one hand.

Yet the middle game is a real challenge to the player. Here in the full
orchestration of the chess game the player has the chance to use all his pieces
to carry out his ideas. All players will be grateful to the grandmasters, Keres
and Kotov, for their masterly analysis of attack and defense in the middlegame,
and to Mr Golombek for his translation and fully authoritative introduction.

"Kasparov - Karpov. New York - Lyon 1990" (ENG,
1991)

The fifth World Chess Championship match between Garry Kasparov
and Anatoly Karpov (New York - Lyon, 1990) was one of the most
complicated in the chess history. The opponents presented the highest level of
chess mastership and notable grandmasters hardly discovered the plans and ideas
of the world champion and his challenger for title in the press center.

Yudovich "Garry Kasparov" (ENG, 1988)

One
should remember that the creative element in chess takes shape in hard-fought
battles, in which, apart from talent and knowledge, a player must have the
energy and will to win.

There is ample evidence of this in the present book, dealing with the chess
career and creative development of the 13th World Chess Champion Garry
Kasparov and his contribution to modern chess. The book is interesting
because it shows how the chess talent of this brilliant chess player has
evolved; how, by strenuous work in chess, he succeeded in overcoming the
shortcomings of his play, in improving chess style and in deepening his
understanding of the chess strategy and chess tactics.

"San Remo 1930" (ENG, 1973)

The
international tournament in San Remo, Italy, in 1930 brought together the
leading chess masters of Europe. The competition itself was an outstanding
triumph for Alexander Alekhine. The games annotations written by
Alekhine, Nimzovitch, Spielman, Botvinnik, Ragozin and other great chessplayers.
Enjoy!

pan-egc.zippan-egc_corr.zipPandolfini's Endgame Course (Simon & Schuster Books; ISBN: 0671656880)! Thanks to Bill Simpson for his great editorial work! Thanks to Bill Mendus for his corrected version! See the excellent reviews of this paperback at Amazon.com or at [Amazon.UK/DE](03/Nov/2003)

reshbgoc.zip"Reshevsky's Best Games of Chess" by Samuel Reshevsky. This book was first published as "Reshevsky on Chess" in 1948. The games have been annofritzed with Fritz 6a on a PIII-450 @ 20 seconds a move. Many thanks to Marek Soszynski! (08/Jan/2001)

botv100a.zip The games of Botvinnik's 100 Selected Games (Dover Publications; ISBN: 0486206203); This Dover paperback is available atAmazon.com or at [Amazon.UK/DE] . This collection was edited with CB-style annotations by Bradley Loh. Thanks for his great work!

100gcg.zip The 100 games of Burgess'/Nunn's/Emms' "Mammoth Book of the World's greatest chess games"! ZIP-file contains a version without (100gcg.cbh) and a version with annofritzations (100gcg_a.cbh)! For more information about this cheap paperback see the extensive online reviews at Amazon.com or at Amazon.de

lc-mbm.zipIrving Chernev's classic "Logical Chess - Move by Move", edited by Bill Simpson. Thanks for this very nice contribution! Batsford (ISBN: 0713484640) has recently brought out a new algebraic edition of that chess - classic. The reviews at Amazon.com or at [Amazon.UK/DE]are enthusiastic!

chernev.zip The games of the book The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played by Irving Chernev. This collection has been provided by Sean Welski . Many thanks! See the excellent reviews of this cheap Dover paperback at Amazon.com or at [Amazon.UK/DE]!

sul_khan.zip The games of the book "Mir Sultan Khan" by R. N. Coles (BCM Quarterly No 10, 1965). This very nice collection with a very helpful index page was provided by Bill Simpson. Thanks!

****** Games /Positions from Euwe/Kramer's The Middlegame (dt. "Das Mittelspiel" is until today the most complete treatise on this subject. It took Euwe originally more than 10 years to finish this project in 12 small volumes. Today this book is available in a nice 2-volume algebraic figurine edition with main author Kramer, published by Hays Publications. At Amazon.com you can find The Middlegame: Book I and The Middlegame: Book II . The german edition (1 volume, +700pp, Ed. Rattmann, ISBN 3-88086-55-6) is still available at some specialized chess-dealers (like http://niggemann.com), but no longer among the german books in print. Here are two versions of complete collections belonging to this book!

middleg.zipBradley Loh's completely annotated electronical edition!YES! Here you find not just the moves and positions, but also all the varations, verbal annotations, introduction texts to all diagrams, some chapter introduction texts. Moreover Bradley Loh has added Chessbase-specific features like arrows, colored squares, training questions for making this an absolutely incredible learning tool!YES! This copyrighted material is put here for free with grateful permission of Lou Hays, who published the printed stuff.YES! This collection is a free gift of Bradley Loh to the worldwide chess community, as anything for download on my website! My heartfelt thanks to Bradley for his extraordinary work!YES! There is a catch: for extracting middleg.cbv from the zip-file you need a password. See the file password.txt about how to get the password easily out of book II of the Hays Pbn edition (or of any other edition you have available).

eukra.zip The sequence of positions and the numbering is according to the german edition (12 parts). I have marked all the diagram positions as "critical middlegame positions". Open the search mask in CBLight, choose "Comments" and mark "critical middlegame position." With OK the search finds all games, but after that you come directly to the diagram position when opening a game! Voila!

which are in combined in the Italian volume Trattato di Scacchi (Treatise on Chess; publisher: Mursia). Thanks to Giorgio Chinnici for his littleeuwe_t.cbv and to Agostino Barrasso for his more comprehensive tds_euwe.cbv contribution!

nichess.zip"New ideas in Chess" by Larry Evans is one of those much appraised classical low-budget Dover chess-books. Thanks to Elmer Barroa from the Philippines for this fine contribution! This book is also available via Amazon.de!

bl50.zipBent Larsen's "50 best games"! From the Danish book "50 udvalgte partier 1948-68" (50 selected games 1948-68) of Bent Larsen. Villy Fink Isaksen has compared the annofritzations with Larsen's own comments! Look at this collection, if you wanna know about the value of annofritzations! Thanks to Villy Fink in beautiful Denmark!

alek_mue.zip This collection contains the 100 games of the Book "Schachgenie Aljechin" (Chess Genius Alekhine, German); Authors: Hans Mueller and A. Pawelczak. This excellent book was published by "Das Schacharchiv" (K. Rattmann, Hamburg, Germany).

mysys.zip Collection of positions and games of the classic "My System" ("Mein System") ofAaron Nimzowitsch! Thanks to Uwe Rößner for that contribution! The beautifully edited "21st century edition" (Hays Pub; ISBN: 1880673851) of this chess classic is available atAmazon.com or at Amazon.de.

chesspr.zip"Chess Praxis" (dt: "Die Praxis meines Systems") by Aaron Nimzowitsch is the 'twin' of Nimzowitsch's famous "My System". This book has been relaunched in an algebraical '21st century edition' by Lou Hays. Thanks to Pascal Petermans for this great classic! This book is also available via Amazon.de!

cuds.zip The games of the classical dutch chessbook "Combinaties uit de schaakpartij", written by L. Prins; published in 1935 in Den Haag. Michael Langeveld did a great job with this collection! Many thanks!

levpol64.zip The Games of Lev Polugaevsky's book "Grandmaster Performance", (Everyman Chess, ISBN 1857440684; other editions with ISBN 0080269133), annofritzed with Fritz4 (=Extreme Chess) by Jim Monaghan. Many thanks for this contribution! This title seems to run out of print at Amazon.comor at [Amazon.UK/DE].

wac.zipWin at Chess by Fred Reinfeld. Another classic been provided by Alberto Porta - many thanks!

igcap.zip The games of Fred Reinfeld's book: "Immortal games of Capablanca"(239pp, Dover Publications; ISBN: 0486263339) This collection (with some light annotations) was provided by Gary Gauthier. Thanks! See the enthusiastic reviews of this cheap Dover paperback at Amazon.com or at [Amazon.UK/DE]

666_400.zip 666 Kurzpartien (short games) or "die Hohe Schule der Schachtaktik" by Kurt Richter (in German) and 400 Kurzpartien by Abram Roisman (in German, orig. Russian). Both game-collections in one file . Some games are missing or dupes, altogether there are only 990 games. Thanks to Heinrich Zödl from beautiful Styria, Austria for that contribution!

rincon1.zip Several collections apparently belonging some spanish books: Study Chess With Tal of Koblentz and Tal, My Favorite Endgames of Karpov and Gyk, The Middle Game Planning of Romanowsy. Thanks to IM Raúl Ocampo , Mexiko for this contribution!

rincon2.zipThe second collection of files belonging to spanish books, provided by IM Raúl Ocampo , Mexiko! IN this file you find: My Chess Career of Capablanca, The Most Instructive Games Ever Played, The Blockade of Nimzovich, A reappraisal of Nimzovich, of Keene.

samarian.zipSergiu Samarian: Das systematische Schachtraining, Falken Verlag. ISBN 3 8068 0857 0. Many thanks to Walther Luehrig for that very nice contribution. samareng.zip - This the same file with english comments by Fritz, provided by Silvio Canto.

fob.zip The games of Alexei Shirov's "Fire on Board". (Cadogan Books; ISBN: 1857441508). The reviews of that book at Amazon.com or at [Amazon.UK/DE] are quite impressive! Randy Bauer rated Fire on Board in his review as book of the year 1997!

htryc.zip For all the many Silman-fans out there: the positions and games of Jeremy Silman's "How To Reassess Your Chess"! See 36 online recensions with an excellent rating of this outstanding book at Amazon.com or at Amazon.de

sac.zip An extract of about 50 games from the book "The Modern Chess Sacrifice" by Shamkovich, published at McKay. The games were provided and annotated by Robert Pawlak (thanks!), the maker of "Chess Widower's Home Page".

spiel_as.zipSpielmann's classic "The Art of sacrifice". (197pp, Dover Publications; ISBN: 0486284492). Thanks for this contribution to Dr. Timothy McGrew! This paperback is reviewed at Amazon.com or at Amazon.de.

******lgtal.zip Games of Mischa Tal's autobiography "The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal"! Almost all games are annofritzed. Includes also (in a separate database) the "additional" games, which are at the begin of each chapter of the book . (Cadogan Books; ISBN: 1857442024). Warning! When you read the reviews at Amazon.com or at [Amazon.UK/DE] , you will most probably want to buy this thick paperack - if you don't have it already! It is one of my personal top favorite chessbooks.

******attack.zip The relaunch of an all-time classic! Vladimir Vukovic's Art of Attack in Chess[Amazon.UK/DE] was originally written more than 60 years ago, but it is still definitely the best book on this subject and one of my personal favorites, too. An example: Vukovic discusses precisely the criteria that are required for a bishop sacrifice on h7 to be successful. You may find the german version (titeled Der Rochadeangriff still at specialiced german chess-book sellers. (Please note: the collection attack.zip is incomplete!)